White Poppies at Pi August 11, 2013

Last summer, a sector of white poppies shot up among the orange California poppies in my flowerbed.  A mutation had sported before my very eyes, and as a geneticist (albeit one who works exclusively on humans), I was delighted.  I saved their seed pods, hoping to sow a line of pure white “pi” poppies after the next winter’s big rain.

In the spring, when the seeds gave rise to both white and orange poppies, I knew I needed to learn something about poppy color genetics and breeding.  A quick literature search indicated that a group in New Zealand was on the case, performing genetic studies on a variety of orange, yellow, and white isolates to delineate genes involved in the biogenesis of its color pigments, called “carotenoids” (think “carrots”).  I began a correspondence with the paper’s primary author, Philippa Barrell, located at the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research in Christchurch.  From her I learned that poppies have self-fertilization incompatibility, in fact for a variety of underlying genetic reasons, and that I’d have to get a lot more serious about poppy breeding if I wanted to sort this out.  We’re talking procedures involving anthers and calyx, tweezers and alcohol.  Perhaps an excuse for a small greenhouse?

As it happens, I will be on the South Island during this coming winter’s holidays, and I suggested to Philippa that I visit her in Christchurch and bring along some white pi poppy seeds to incorporate into her studies, to which she rapidly responded that bringing in these seeds could result in either a heavy fine or possibly imprisonment!   Perhaps just a visit, then.  In the meantime, I’ll keep enjoying the white poppies, now all intermingled with their orange kin, and who, for the time being, hold their genetic secrets deep inside.